500th Anniversary of Tyndale's Translation of the New Testament

Direct link: https://youtu.be/ZEAl5iOyY6c?si=PpAa86Ddi9n37aHO

2026 marks the 500-year anniversary of the publication of William Tyndale’s English Translation of the New Testament.

Tyndale was the first to translate the New Testament Scriptures into English from the original Greek.

When the British Library paid over one million dollars, some years ago, for one of the last remaining copies of a Tyndale New Testament— only 3 are known to still exist—they stated that “This is the most important book in the English language.” That is quite a statement especially with how many historical books there are!

When Tyndale published and then smuggled his New Testaments into England, it furthered a renewal of faith in Christ, which had already been ignited by the Reformation. 

The ability to read for oneself such verses as: “It is by grace you are saved through faith… it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2:8), opened the spiritual eyes of many that faith in Christ was what was called for, meanwhile undermining things like rituals, penance, and indulgences, which were born not of Scripture but of the religious system.

That renewal spread far and wide and his English New Testament fueled the fires of faith, causing the British Isles to become known for a time in history as “People of the Book.” 

It furthermore codified the English language into a comprehensive whole while helping spread literacy throughout England. These things made it most important, yet most dangerous.

Because of the Oxford Constitutions of 1408 that made it illegal to translate the Bible into English, Tyndale was forced to flee England and he subsequently met with Martin Luther in Germany.

Luther’s German translation was a great aid for Tyndale in finishing and then publishing his New Testament. It was from Worms, Germany where Tyndale first published his New Testament in 1526, and then had printed copies shipped and smuggled into England.

His task was most dangerous because “the powers that be” a phrase coined by Tyndale himself by the way, sought to rid the earth of him and continued to hunt him down even after he fled England. 

He was finally caught, and after being imprisoned for some time, was brought to the stake where he was strangled and then burned in a public execution in Vilvoorde, Belgium. All for his efforts to give the English the Word of God in their own language, but not before Tyndale led his jailer and the jailer’s family to Christ, as well as praying these powerfully prophetic final words as he was about to be executed, “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes!”

Not only was Tyndale burned, but his New Testaments were bought up and burned by Tunstall, the Bishop of London, in his fanatical quest to stop the spread of the Word of God and the Reformation.

The Bible, according to “the powers that be,” must be kept in Latin. Since hardly anyone except a few elites knew Latin, the few elites of the cloth could  interpret it and stay in control.

The New Testament in the language of the people undermined their money-making schemes: From selling indulgences, which is paying for forgiveness and reduced time in Purgatory, to things like the adoration of relics, which were old bones and such allegedly belonging to Saints. Give a donation while adoring a relic and voilà, more reduced Purgatory time. These relic claims got so fanciful they even claimed to have a twig from the burning bush of Moses and a hair from Jesus’ head… yeah, sure who had the gall to sneak up on Jesus and pull out a hair out of his head and then kept it for the next 1500 years… the more time that passed, it seemed the more ludicrous these relic claims became! 

According to Oxford and Reformation Scholar Diarmaid MacCulloch, only three Tyndale New Testaments remain because people who got them back in the 16th Century were reading them so voraciously, they wore them out. Furthermore, they had to keep them hidden since they were illegal contraband Bibles. Constant reading and turning pages alongside hiding, for example, under a bed or in a bushel of hay, didn’t help perpetuate their longevity.

Interestingly however is that Tunstall’s fanatical burning of the Bibles backfired in numerous ways. Many were outraged that a man of the cloth would actually burn the sacred Scriptures, causing public sentiment to turn against him. 

In addition, the money used to buy up the Bibles was secretly given to Tyndale who published more of them as a result. When Thomas More inquired about who was funding Tyndale, it was answered that “the Bishop is! The money he is using to buy up the Bibles is secretly being given to Tyndale to print more!” 

Tyndale was influenced by the Reformation and went from being a priest who was just religious to having a conversion that brought him into a relationship with Christ based upon faith and grace. Tyndale writes: “Take no account of your works, be they either good or bad, faith in Christ is everything.”

Right before he was executed, Tyndale  prayed out loud:  “Lord, open the King of England’s  eyes.” Three years later King Henry the Eighth had Tyndale Bibles placed in all the churches in England so that all could read them! 

The Reformation caused a renewal of faith and led in time to revivals, renewal movements, missionary movements, evangelism, prayer movements, as well as raising up preachers, bringing about social reforms, and as stated, Bible translations. 

It spread across the channel into the UK from Germany and then in time came across the Atlantic, leading to the birth of a new nation called America.

It was a blessing to hear Oxford professor and Reformation scholar  Diarmaid MacCulloch’s recent lecture on Tyndale at St. Paul’s Cathedral, and while I watched the video, I noticed that he covered a lot of the same material that we have ourselves in our own videos on Tyndale featured here, so we encourage you to check them out!

There is a lot more interesting information to learn about in this subject. You can get a good overview in our videos from our new Tyndale and Other Translators of the Bible playlist on YouTube and other platforms.
 
A Note on Creating Content

When I was attending Fuller Theological Seminary I did a concentration—what you would call a major elsewhere—in Christian History. 

There was so much material to cover that a clear brief view of the person, or topic, was often obscured in the fog of extraneous details. 

I was thinking that it would be great if  there were some videos that would briefly explain certain figures and events in Christian History, that focused on the major aspects about them and their role. Especially since not everyone wants to read some lengthy, not very riveting, giant tome, just to get an idea of how the Lord may have worked through a particular historical figure.

The idea of doing short videos on some of these topics stayed with me… As I thought about that, I discerned the Holy Spirit impressing me with: You could do that!

The Lord subsequently took us through a journey that had us learning to shoot and edit videos. Editing is not as exciting as watching paint dry but … almost 😅!

As we have ministered in Europe over the years it has also served as something akin to attending another Spiritual Seminary as we have been led to visit certain key places and sites where events in Christian History actually took place, which has in turn driven us deeper into learning more about these subjects.

As a result, we have both been touched by the grace of God and the testimonies of those who encountered the Lord’s grace and mercy including in the Reformation!

We have thus made quite a few videos on that topic, and many others including Revivals, and have also recently made a “Reformation Playlist.”

The Reformation is an important event and, as stated above, it led to: Revivals, Renewal Movements, Evangelism, Raised up Preachers, Prayer Movements, Missionary Movements, and on and on, and even led to the birth of a new nation.

We are seeking to make clearer the connecting threads of the work of the Holy Spirit through the History of the Faith. 

Take a little time to check out some of our videos here, especially the main one featuring Tyndale, as it will give you a good overview in a short amount of time.

We would appreciate you considering donating to help us in our unique ministry that ranges from ministering renewal in the power of the Holy Spirit, to teaching and preaching, to doing evangelism, as well as teaching and making videos and other things on Christian History like this. Click here to give:https://www.graceworldmission.org/contact_us.htm

Thank you for all your support.
Love and blessings
Bryan and Mercedes Marleaux
www.graceworldmission.org
https://linktr.ee/graceworldmission